The Family Directive
by Queenbean3
Summary: WALL-E and EVE must look after a lost baby until they can return her to her parents. Is it possible for a pair of robots to love a human child as their own?


Disclaimer: I don't own any part of _WALL·E_ because, sadly, I don't work for Disney or Pixar. Yet. Someday I shall join the Geek Squad, but until then, the only thing I own in this story is one original character who I hope you will like. Read and enjoy!

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The Family Directive

Early on during the Axiom's cruise in space, one of the Buy N Large bigwigs decided that the old way of having babies was too much work. It required making the effort to get up out of one's comfortable hover-chair, interacting with a member of the opposite sex, and doing things in private that should not be spoken of in polite company. Why go to all that trouble when it was far easier to let the robots and computers do all the work? Just like machines, babies could be mass reproduced and even customized through genetic engineering. Therefore, each generation of humans became progressively more dependent on this process to produce the next. As the centuries passed, humans totally forgot where babies really came from.

No one bothered to raise their own children, either. Parenting was too demanding, so once again more robots were built to do the job. Mechanized nannies raised each infant and taught them to believe that Buy N Large was the source of all happiness. None of these babies ever met their biological parents, and never even suspected that they had any. Not even the robots who bred and raised them knew where these children really came from. They were simply following their programming and never questioned it.

So it was for seven centuries, until the Axiom finally returned to Earth in the year 2815 AD. Humanity was suddenly forced to get up on its own legs again and learn everything about living from scratch. There were still plenty of robots around to help them along, but overall they had to do things for themselves again. Slowly but surely, their old survival instincts began returning. Until one day, about one year later, a woman became pregnant for the first time in almost 700 years.

At first no one recognized the pregnancy for what it was. Mary, the mother-to-be, thought she had contracted some horrible disease. Her husband John, worried for her health, went to the Captain for help. The Captain could find no information about the woman's condition in his manual for Operation: Recolonize. Only after consulting the Axiom's all-knowing computer did he discover the truth. Not only was the Captain astounded to learn that Mary was going to have a baby, he was even more astounded that any adult human being could have one.

The Captain felt this knowledge was so important that he announced it not only to John and Mary, but to the entire colony. The humans were amazed and soon other couples began talking about having babies of their own. The robots, however, reacted more with confusion than excitement. EVE was no exception. Upon hearing how the traditional process of making a baby worked, the probe-bot immediately found it disgusting and wanted nothing more to do with it. Her companion WALL·E, however, found the concept of 'baby' magical and wanted to learn all he could on the subject.

Every chance he got he would drag EVE along with him to visit John and Mary in their escape pod-turned-house. Both of their human friends had become much thinner and stronger after adapting to Earth's gravity, but the woman's belly seemed to grow bigger every day. At first there was only a small bump there, but as the months went by it swelled so big that it was an effort for Mary to even stand up.

One day Mary let WALL·E touch the bump, and when he felt the baby inside moving he became ecstatic. "Eee-vah! Eee-vah!" he squealed, grabbing the hand of his companion and pointing to Mary's belly. "Baby! Baby!"

Then he pressed her hand against it. For a moment EVE just stared at the spot blankly, not feeling any sort of movement. And then suddenly, something went 'bump' against her palm. At that instant, her oval eyes widened into circles, and she understood exactly what WALL·E and all the humans were so excited about. For the first time, EVE said the word 'baby' with awe instead of disgust.

Several weeks later, the baby made its grand entrance into the world. John was overjoyed and ran all around the village announcing his child's birth at the top of his lungs. Every human and robot dropped what they were doing to go see the new arrival, and WALL·E and EVE were among the first to get there. Mary was resting in her bed and looked very tired but proudly displayed the infant for the visitors to see. As it turned out, the child was a girl and her parents had chosen to name her Hannah. It was a fairly easy word to pronounce, and WALL·E repeated it several times to remember it. "Hah-nah … _Haaaah_-nah … Hah-_naaah_ …"

It took almost three weeks for the excitement of the birth to die down, and soon life in the colony went back to normal. John returned to his farming duties, and eventually Mary joined him. Everywhere she went she carried little Hannah on her back, wrapped securely in place by a sturdy sheet. During her outings people would stop to look at the baby and Mary would speak very proudly about whatever simple thing she had done lately, such as nursing or soiling her diaper. Along with sleeping, those were the only things little Hannah did, but after some time she was wide awake and watching the world around her with great interest. Her eyes were the same blue color as John's and they would stay open for hours at a time, absorbing all the people, places and things as if she were deep in thought.

WALL·E and EVE continued to visit their human friends as often as time would permit, and every time they came it seemed the child had grown. Hannah was comfortable with having the two robots around and smiled when she saw them. When she learned to crawl, she would follow WALL·E as he rolled around the ground on his treads. When she learned to walk, she would follow EVE as she hovered just out of her reach. And when she learned to talk, she could say both their names. Or she tried to, anyway. WALL·E came out as "Wah-wee" and EVE came out as "Ee-bah" when she said it. Somehow, both of them were very happy that she knew their names at all.

At night Hannah slept in a NANC-E unit. It was an early model of nanny-bot, but it had stopped functioning long ago and was just a simple cradle now. One night, after Mary had gone to put Hannah to bed, John said something to the two robots that puzzled them. He was sitting in his old hover-chair, which didn't really hover anymore, but just sat there like an ordinary chair. "She really loves you guys, you know." he said. "It's like you're part of the family now."

"Family?" EVE echoed, somewhat confused.

"Fam-lee?" WALL·E said, testing the new word as much as asking a question.

"Sure, why not?" John continued. "I mean, family is just a few steps up from being friends, and you guys are the best friends we've got!"

'Family' was a word the two robots had heard a lot ever since Mary's pregnancy was first announced. As WALL·E and EVE understood it, 'family' was a concept closely related to 'baby' and a title that applied only to the trio of John, Mary, and Hannah. It was a small, exclusive group and it took specific requirements to get in. None of the other humans they knew qualified and certainly none of the robots did. They must have done something right for John to declare them part of the group, and they considered themselves quite lucky for it.

Shortly after that day, winter came. Most of the colony relocated back inside the Axiom for shelter and warmth, while WALL·E and EVE spent most of the season confined to their trailer home with only Hal the cockroach for company. At first the robot lovers were glad to spend so much time with each other, and they liked to go out in the snow. But sunlight was scarce, and without it WALL·E could not recharge his solar batteries as often. This made EVE worry for him, and in the end they both spent the rest of the season in a state of hibernation to conserve energy.

Finally spring came. The two robots spent the first day just sitting out in the sun and WALL·E received a much-needed recharge for his batteries. Then they made the trip to where the Axiom was and were glad to see their old friends coming out again. They were especially glad to see that their 'family' was doing well, but there was little time for socializing. Spring was the planting season, which meant every member of the colony had to work twice as hard to regain what had been lost in the winter.

Every day the Captain poured over his manual searching for more efficient ways to do the work that had to be done, and searching for the elusive 'pizza plant' he dreamed of. John and Mary were out in the fields even more than usual, and Hannah was too big to be carried around with them. Now she was often left with the older children who had a NAN-E unit to watch over them.

All the robots had one main directive now; help the humans to survive. For this purpose, WALL·E was given a new task to do instead of compacting trash. He was now in charge of searching the ancient city for tools and other items the humans could work with. EVE was given several odd jobs but she mostly used her unique skills to help her partner.

On one particular spring day, the two of them collected many useful artifacts from a defunct Buy N Large superstore. The old stores were good places to search for things that were not totally decomposed or rotten, and there was always at least one on every corner. Most of the essentials had been bought by panicked humans before Project Clean-Up had begun, so the quality of the leftover items was sometimes questionable.

Their findings today included a bean bag chair, several beach towels, a huge carton of Kremies and several packages of toilet paper. For some reason the humans in the village asked for toilet paper a lot, and none of them ever explained why. WALL·E's lunch box was too small to hold everything, so they used a shopping cart instead. EVE was pushing the cart through the streets, feeling rather bored with this menial work. The probe-bot would have much preferred a job where she could fly or blow something up with her ion cannon, but as long as she could be with her partner she tolerated the tedium.

WALL·E, meanwhile, seemed to be enjoying himself as he rolled along ahead, picking up things he found that might be added to the collection. For him, the new job was like a treasure hunt, and since he already liked collecting things he decided this job was better than compacting garbage. His faithful pet Hal was perched on his shoulder, not really doing anything to help but enjoying the ride anyway.

All around them green things were growing. New life was slowly taking over the empty urban metropolis. Birds and insects could be heard singing and chirping everywhere, and their sounds were a foreign yet pleasant music to the robot couple. Suddenly they heard a new sound join nature's orchestra. The robots froze in the street and listened. They knew that sound. It was the Buy N Large jingle, but it wasn't a recording. It was being hummed, and rather poorly, at that. Leaving the shopping cart parked at an intersection, the couple listened and followed the hum until they found the source.

There, in a broken-down alley where tall weeds and wild flowers were growing, was Hannah. She wore the same red bodysuit that all human children wore, and was humming the jingle with a pacifier in her mouth. At the same time she was gathering yellow dandelions and white clover blossoms in her hands. When she heard the familiar sounds of the robot couple in motion, her mouth fell open and the pacifier dangled limply from its ribbon. "Wah-wee!" she squealed happily.

She toddled through the alley garden toward the garbage-bot and wrapped her short arms around his boxy torso in a hug. "Whoa!" WALL·E exclaimed in surprise. This was the first time a human had ever hugged him, and he was not quite sure what to do about it. EVE made a muffled giggling sound from behind her hands. Then WALL·E realized that Hannah was waiting for him to return the hug. He did so rather carefully and patted her back the way he remembered John doing. For some reason, it felt something like the first time EVE had ever embraced him.

Satisfied with the hug, Hannah reached her arms up. "Ee-bah!" she squealed, showing the female robot her bouquet. EVE smiled with her eyes and leaned down to admire the flowers. Hannah giggled, then pushed the flowers against the robot's chest and patted them. EVE blinked at her, confused. Hannah grinned, showing her new collection of tiny white teeth. "Fo' Ee-bah." the child said.

EVE would've blushed if she'd been capable. No one but WALL·E had ever offered her a gift before. She took the flowers from Hannah's little hands, murmured a shy "Thank you," and placed the plants inside her bio-stasis torso chamber. They would be quite safe there until she could find a better container at home, like an old coffee mug or soda can.

During Hannah's interaction with the robots, Hal had watched her rather curiously from his perch on WALL·E's shoulder. The cockroach had never seen her before, or if he did he could not remember anyway, since his tiny insect memory was very short. He scuttled down the garbage-bot's front to take a closer look at the human child, but Hannah did not notice him until she stepped on him by mistake.

_Crunch. _She looked down and lifted her foot, noticing the squished bug on the ground. WALL·E gasped in horror at the sight of his wounded pet. "Oops." Hannah said with a serious face. Suddenly Hal popped back up on his six little feet, perfectly intact, and scrambled up Hannah's leg. He continued climbing until he reached the top of her head, where she couldn't see him. She reached up with both hands to feel him, and he crawled to her arm. There he sat, perfectly happy, while she stared at him with wide eyes.

WALL·E decided then to introduce his pet. "Hal." he said, pointing to the insect with one metal digit.

Hannah attempted to say the new word. "Hah… Ha-ooh… Hah-ooh-ull?"

WALL·E repeated it for her more slowly, stretching out each sound. "Hhh-aaa-lll."

Hannah tried again but couldn't quite manage to get rid of the 'ooh' sound, so instead of "Hal" it came out as "Howl." At this point the cockroach decided to play again. He scurried under Hannah's arm and behind her back. She craned her neck sideways and turned around in a circle, only to have him show up again on her other hand. Then Hal repeated the same trick in the opposite direction, and Hannah turned again, still trying to follow him.

As they watched the child and cockroach play, WALL·E and EVE began to realize that John and Mary were not here. That was strange. Hannah never went anywhere without at least one them to watch her, but there was no sign that either parent was around. The robot couple looked at each other and then looked at the child. "Hah-nah?" WALL·E said.

Hannah stopped turning in circles and looked at him. Hal was perched on her head again, long antennae wiggling behind him.

"Fam-lee?" WALL·E asked.

The child pointed behind her, through the foliage of the old alley in the general direction of the village. "Home."

The robot couple looked at each other again. This answer did not make sense. 'Family' could not exist without 'baby', so how could Hannah be here in the ruins if John and Mary were still at home? Could she have come with the NAN-E, or some other children? That did not make sense either, because they were not here. On top of that, no parent or robot in their right mind would let a baby wander off by alone, especially not to a dangerous place like the ruins.

Suddenly a loud beeping noise broke their thoughts. WALL·E's storm alarm was going off, and dark clouds were quickly filling the sky. As the wind picked up, thunder growled and rumbled. There was no more time to wonder how Hannah had gotten here. They had to get the child to shelter, and fast. Without a word, EVE snatched both WALL·E and Hannah up in her arms and flew back to where she had left the shopping cart. After dropping both of them on top of the bean bag chair, she gripped the bar tightly between her fists, narrowed her eyes and pushed.

"_Eee-vaaaah!"_ The garbage-bot screamed and clung to both sides of the cart for dear life as it flew over the cracked roads and swerved around corners at breakneck speed. The G-forces pushed Hannah deep into the bean bag chair from and kept her buried in it. Even Hal was frightened and scrambled to the bottom of the cart to hide. As the thunder grew louder, rain began to fall in cold, stinging drops. EVE heard Hannah making frightened noises from behind her hands, and knew she had to stop now. They were still too far from home, so instead she headed for the next best thing.

There was an empty parking garage straight ahead. This was where EVE finally parked the speeding shopping cart. WALL·E was still shivering so hard that he was rattling inside his box form. Hannah's hood was blown off her head and her fluffy blonde hair was standing on end. EVE gently lifted them out of the cart one at a time and tried to calm them down, but the poor old shopping cart had taken too much abuse from her. It groaned noisily, then popped all its screws and broke into pieces with a loud _CRASH! _The noise echoed off the concrete walls, and when it faded EVE put an embarrassed hand to her face. "Oops."

"Ack!" WALL·E remembered Hal was still in there and sped toward the wreckage to search from him. He picked through the cart's contents, tossing the bean bag chair and the now soggy beach towels behind him. When he picked up the box of Kremies he noticed a hole in the bottom that had not been there before. He shook the box and out fell Hal, covered in white cream filling. With a sigh of relief, WALL·E dropped the box on the floor and scooped Hal up in his hands. Now at last, with everyone safe in this temporary shelter, he could begin to relax.

Suddenly there was a blinding white flash of lighting outside, followed by a clap of thunder so loud that it shook the building down to its foundation. But none of that was as scary as when Hannah began wailing at the top of her lungs. Her cries were amplified by the acoustics of the building, and both robots retreated behind a concrete pillar, so stunned were they that such a tiny human could make such a racket. WALL·E boxed himself up and even EVE shrank back in alarm.

Gradually the screams reduced to sniffles and sobs. EVE, always the braver of the pair, peered out from their hiding spot. Hannah was now curled up in a ball with her face in her hands, rocking herself back and forth moaning the word 'mama' over and over like the most pathetic thing in the world. EVE felt her heart breaking just watching her. There was also some guilt in there, too. It was partly her fault that Hannah was scared. The wild ride to escape the rain could have been handled better. Quietly the probe-bot drifted over to the sniffling child and lightly touched her back. Hannah shuddered under her cold fingertips and looked up at her with red, swollen eyes and a runny nose. She hiccupped. "Mama …"

It was worse then EVE suspected. She searched her memory on what the child's parents did for her when she was distressed. Then she noticed the pacifier pinned to Hannah's bodysuit. Carefully she picked it up and placed the rubber end into the child's mouth. She began to suck on it immediately, then lifted her arms and held them open. EVE lowered herself enough to let Hannah cling to her sleek waist. The robot hugged back as carefully as possible, fully knowing how easy it would be to harm this tiny shivering being. Yet something deep in the probe-bot's circuits made her want to protect this child with her life. It was not so very different from the feeling she had toward her beloved WALL·E.

Meanwhile, WALL·E had emerged from his protective box and was now watching the tender moment. It was unusual for EVE to show such affection to anyone, and he felt a little jealous that she was sharing it with someone besides him. But he also felt jealous that he had not been able to comfort Hannah when she needed it. He had always believed he was her favorite because she would greet him first when he and EVE visited her. But perhaps now, at this moment, it was EVE she needed most. She had always been the more protective of them, and it made sense that Hannah would go to her at a time of fear. Still, he wished he could do more for her. She was nearly as precious to him as EVE herself, and he would do anything he could to make her happy.

Suddenly it dawned on him, and it was so obvious he felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. Now WALL·E had a plan, but he still needed something to make it work. He set down his lunchbox and dug through it until he found what he was looking for. Then he pressed the 'play' button on his audio recording unit and came out from behind the pillar.

EVE looked up and stared at him. He was playing _Put on Your Sunday Clothes_ and dancing along to the music, using a plastic Frisbee in place of a hat. At first the probe-bot thought something like 'What in the name of Shelby Forthright is he doing?' Then she noticed that Hannah had stopped shivering and was watching him. The child wiped her damp face on her sleeve and stared at the dancing garbage-bot in utter silence for several moments.

And then, to EVE's amazement, she began to smile. WALL·E was making her smile. By the end of the song, he performed his big finish. He flipped the Frisbee straight up in the air and caught it on his head just before it hit the ground. He then stuck his arms straight out to the sides with a proud "Tada!"

Hannah found this absolutely wonderful and clapped her delighted little hands together. She looked up at EVE as if to say 'Wasn't that great?' and the probe-bot nodded happily in agreement. WALL·E felt so pleased with himself that he forgot the Frisbee on his head when he took his bows. It plopped on the floor as he did so and he picked it back up sheepishly. Hannah was still happily applauding for him though, and cried "Again! Again!"

WALL·E would have been happy to repeat his performance, but just then, at the back of the garage, an elevator chimed and slid open. A familiar gaggle of robots clambered out, all wearing the same thick red cables attached to their heads. The cables branded them as 'reject bots' because they all possessed a glitch that made them either a danger or a nuisance to humans. Since their rescue from the Axiom's repair ward, this group regarded WALL·E and EVE as heroes and became their loyal fan club. They had taken up residence in the parking garage, though, because no one seemed to know what else to do with them.

Even M-O was with them. The tiny cleaner-bot was the only one who had no glitches and was not an outcast. Usually he tried to avoid the reject bots if he could help it, but the storm had forced him to take shelter with them today.

As soon as the band of exiles saw their heroes they stampeded across the floor to greet them, making all kinds of crazy noises as they came. This caused Hannah to latch on to EVE's arm and let out a frightened "Eek!"

The stampede screeched to a stop halfway across the floor. Not one of the reject bots were allowed near a child in so long that their glitch-ridden processors had forgotten what a child was. Hannah might as well have been a two-headed alien to them. They clustered together and gawked at her, unsure of what she might do.

Then M-O caught up, circled in front of the group and made frustrated noises at them. Hannah thought he was funny and let a giggle slip out. As soon he noticed her M-O yelped, backed up against the others and trembled. He secretly thought that children were slobbery, destructive monsters, but he was far too proud to ever admit it.

EVE took this unspoken rejection of her 'baby' as a personal insult. She placed her right arm in front of the child and narrowed her eyes, planning to defend her with her ion cannon if necessary. WALL·E anticipated this and quickly placed himself in harm's way to stop her. First he waved his arms at EVE pleading for her to calm down. He turned to the reject-bots and pointed toward the frightened child behind him. "Hah-nah." he said, introducing her to the group. WALL·E then looked at her and pointed to the cluster of robots. "Friends."

Hannah looked at the other robots. She looked at WALL·E again, and then looked up at EVE. She opened her mouth, attempting to speak with the pacifier still in her mouth. "F-fwend…?"

EVE nodded her head and spoke gently. "Friends." Then she straightened herself up, faced the crowd in a dead serious manner, and pointed at the child. _"Hannah."_

The reject bots remained silent, still not sure what to do. Finally M-O decided it was time to remind everyone how tough he was. He slid forward a few inches and inspected the girl from a distance. Staying out of arm's reach, he raised his small body up as tall as he could and stated his designation. "M-O."

Hannah looked down at the tiny cleaner-bot and tilted her head to one side. She looked at EVE and WALL·E again for reassurance. They both nodded to her encouragingly. Feeling braver, Hannah looked back at the new bot. "Moe." she said, sounding the one syllable word easily.

M-O looked quite proud when he heard his name spoken and looked back at his comrades, expecting them to join him in greeting the newcomer. One by one, the other robots inched closer to the small human. Some that could speak tried saying her name, and she laughed at their funny voices and accents. WALL·E breathed a sigh of relief and looked at EVE, who seemed calmer now that Hannah was accepted by the group. She was also smiling at him. It never ceased to amaze her how his uncanny ability to make friends could solve almost any problem.

The thunder and lighting soon passed, but the rain continued to fall for over an hour. During that time Hannah remained in the safety of the parking garage under the watchful eyes of her robot family and played with her new robot friends. The reject bots soon got over their fears of Hannah but remained at a safe distance because EVE was still hovering over her. They began a game of pushing things toward the child to see what she'd do with them. She would have fun with anything that was given to her, even M-O.

The cleaner-bot objected to this as noisily as possible, but once the child had a hold on him he was unable to escape. He grumbled and fumed as he was shaken upside down, squeezed like a doll, and even chewed on. When she finally put him down he zipped as far from her reach as possible. He then rubbed himself down fiercely with his cleaning brush, glaring at the robots that had put him in her hands in the first place.

Later Hannah became hungry, and WALL·E remembered the carton of Kremies. Hal had gotten to some of them already, but there were enough left for Hannah to snack on. She had never eaten Kremies before and liked them right away. She was a very messy eater and soon most of her face, hands and the rest of her body became covered with yellow crumbs and white cream.

Acting motherly once again, EVE used one of the wet beach towels to clean her up. Hannah would not hold still for this, so EVE ordered M-O to help. The cleaner-bot was reluctant, fearing more brutal treatment from the human, but his powerful urge to clean won in the end. This time he managed to get away with only a sticky hand print on his head.

At last the rain stopped and the robot couple made plans to return Hannah to her parents. EVE set out to find a new shopping cart to carry her in since the old one was still in pieces. Hannah started toddling after her but was pulled back by WALL·E gently tugging on her hood. He had to keep her near the garage until EVE came back, but that didn't mean he couldn't let her have some fun.

Mud puddles were everywhere outside, and he saw no harm in Hannah hopping and splashing about in them. He even did it with her. The reject bots decided to join the fun and cheerfully splashed each other. M-O stayed inside, of course, scowling in a corner like a little troll and grumbling to himself.

As WALL·E helped Hannah build a mud pie, something colorful in the sky caught his attention. He looked up and saw a gleaming arch high above the crumbling buildings and towers of cubed garbage, bright and shining against the retreating gray clouds. He waved his arms excitedly and shouted for the others to look. Even M-O ventured forth from his cave to see what the fuss was about. All the robots and Hannah gazed in wonder at the rainbow, the first one any of them had ever seen. A collective 'Ooooh' went up from the group.

EVE also noticed the rainbow and stopped to marvel at it. Somehow the beautiful sight lifted her spirits and made her feel like flying. So she left the empty shopping cart where it was and shot straight up into the air, soaring high enough to reach the arc of colors and pass straight through it in a burst of sparkling droplets. Then she looked down on the ruined city stretching out beneath her. From her bird's-eye view she could see the garage where WALL·E and the others were, just tiny moving dots on the reflective streets. In the distance there was the massive silhouette of the Axiom, and clustered around it were the human dwellings. Their many neat farms and fields looked like a patchwork grid in the green meadow that stretched out toward the horizon.

Then EVE noticed a cluster of red dots in the sea of grass, moving steadily from the village toward the ruins. Upon focusing her vision on them she saw that the red dots were humans, and a single white dot leading the way was the Captain. Just behind him were John and Mary, holding on to each other with very worried expressions on their faces.

EVE gasped aloud. This was no time for a casual stroll through the clouds! She swept back down to the street, lifted the shopping cart over her head, and blasted toward the garage at high-speed. When she got there she wasted no time informing her mate of what was happening. "WALL·E! Family! Hurry, hurry!" As EVE quickly piled their findings into the cart WALL·E pulled Hannah toward it. The probe-bot seated them both on the bean bag chair and began pushing the cart through the wet street as fast was safe for her passenger.

Soon she was forced to stop completely. The asphalt was crumbling to rubble at the point where the road merged with the meadow. Here the terrain was too rough for the cart to roll on. Then WALL·E noticed there was a low mound between them and humans, and urged EVE to take them there. She lifted both him and Hannah into the air, sped forward until she reached the mound and set them down on the very top. WALL·E then began to flail his arms and hopped up and down, calling to the humans as loudly as he could.

Hannah copied him, thinking he was playing. As soon as the humans saw her bouncing around in her red bodysuit they charged forward, shouting her name even louder than before. Fueled by adrenaline and parental instincts, John and Mary shoved their way past the Captain and quickly outdistanced the whole search party. When she saw her mother and father approaching Hannah squealed and started to run, but slipped down the wet slope and landed in yet another pile of mud.

A long time back, perhaps around the time Hannah was born, the robot couple had learned that humans would cry not only when they felt unhappy, but also when their happiness was overflowing. This might have been the happiest moment in these humans' lives. As soon as she swept her baby up in her arms, Mary burst into tears. John couldn't help doing the same and embraced his wife and daughter in a huge bear hug. WALL·E and EVE exchanged a look of contentment. Their mission was accomplished. The family had their baby again, and all was right with the world.

At first none of the humans noticed the robot couple as they caught up to the small family. They were all too excited to see the baby safe and sound, and made a tremendous amount of noise over it. It seemed like they were all trying to laugh, cry, and talk at the same time. Then the Captain heard a familiar whistle and saw the garbage-bot gazing up at him from the ground.

"Oh! It's you, WALL·E! And you, too, EVE!" He grinned broadly and gave both the robots a hearty handshake. "So you found her, eh? Good work, both of you! When we found out she wasn't with the other kids, we thought that-" He paused to clear his throat, emotion getting the better of him. Then he wiped his damp eyes and removed his hat, doing his best to keep his emotions in check. "Never mind what we thought. You brought her back, and that's all that matters."

The garbage-bot was about to make a reply along the lines of 'Don't mention it, it was nothing', but that was when John noticed him. "WALL·E!" He knelt and shook his hand so hard that the poor robot feared his arm would break off. "You did it, little buddy! You found my baby girl! You're a hero, pal! A true hero!" Then he saw EVE, got up and gave the same energetic handshake to a bewildered probe-bot. "You kept her safe! All this time you guys kept her safe! Man oh man, if we'd known where she was, we wouldn't have panicked half as much! You should've seen Mary, she was a mess!"

"Speak for yourself, John!" Mary chimed in. Then she directed her full attention back to the baby in her arms, switching back and forth between scolding her and smothering her with affection. "You scared us to death, young lady! Don't you ever run away again! Oh, but I'm so glad you're safe!" Hannah just smiled and giggled, basking in the attention and not knowing anything bad had happened at all.

The Captain put his hat back on and stood up, all business again. "Okay, everyone, quiet down!" he said loudly, clapping his hands together to get the attention of the group. "I've just made a decision. I'm calling the rest of this day off from work so we can celebrate! We're officially having a _hoedown_ tonight!"

The humans thrust their fists in the air and cheered. Then they heard cheers coming from somewhere else. It was the reject bots gathered at the edge of the meadow, chanting Hannah's name and flailing about wildly. Then to the surprise of all the humans, the child waved back and said "Bye-bye, fwends!"

John stared at his daughter and scratched his head in disbelief. "You gotta be kidding me. Those reject bots helped, too?"

WALL·E's optics bobbed up and down in a firm nod. "Friends!"

The Captain regarded the noisy group thoughtfully. Something clicked in his head just then. Hadn't those robots helped protect his passengers years ago, when he'd been fighting AUTO for control of the Axiom? John and Mary were thinking the same thing. They had personally seen those bots shielding other humans while EVE herself was shielding them both. If those defective robots had been heroes back then, why couldn't they be heroes now?

Finally the Captain spoke. "I guess we should invite them to the party."

A nervous woman in the group spoke up. "Um, are you sure we can trust them, Captain?"

A little voice in the Captain's brain agreed with her and reminded him that although they were heroes, those robots were still defective. There was no telling what kind of damage they might do if they were allowed to roam the colony. But, another voice pointed out, if they had managed to spend all this time with a little girl without hurting her, perhaps they weren't so defective after all.

He looked down at the little garbage-bot at his feet, the same garbage-bot that had somehow outlived all his brethren by seven hundred years, flown through the empty vastness of space, and risked his life so bravely to save them all. "Friends?" he said, looking up at him with optics full of hope.

The Captain smiled back. He turned to face his followers. "No, I'm not sure we can trust those robots." he admitted. "But I know we can trust WALL·E."

The search party returned home victorious, holding the garbage-bot and his mate up in the air along with the baby. They received a heroes' welcome in the village, and that night the whole colony stayed up late celebrating the safe return of the missing Hannah. There was dancing, singing, feasting, and general merrymaking of all kinds. WALL·E didn't really get what all the fuss was about. He'd just done what he thought what anyone else would do in his situation. EVE felt much the same, but she didn't mind. In fact, she was more then happy to do it all over again.

No one ever found out how little Hannah had gotten so far away from home. Perhaps she wandered off when the NAN-E was distracted, or maybe she followed a pretty butterfly across the meadow. John and Mary, though, privately suspected that she was searching for her robot family. Children, they knew, were smarter then most grown-ups gave them credit for.

The human couple invited the robot couple to visit more often, and suggested the possibility of going to visit their home. WALL·E was delighted by the idea. He could already picture Hannah chasing Hal around the floor, playing with his favorite trinkets, and maybe even taking one home as a present. EVE remembered the little bouquet stored in her bio-stasis chamber. She couldn't possibly put a gift from Hannah in a coffee mug and leave it there to wither away. The flowers deserved to be re-planted outside their doorway, where they could thrive and grow.

Finally Hannah began yawning, and Mary realized it was far past her bedtime. "We'd better start heading home now, honey." she whispered to John. Then she smiled back at her robot friends. "Thanks again, for everything."

John shook WALL·E's hand one more time. "Take care of yourself, buddy. You hear?"

WALL·E nodded his optics at his human friend. Then he looked at the sleepy Hannah and waved goodbye to her. "Bye-bye!"

Hannah drowsily smiled from her mother's arms and barely managed to answer before drifting off to sleep. "Bye-bye … Wah-wee…"

_The End_

* * *

Author's Note:

Wow, did you actually read all that? I'm impressed! This thing wound up being thirteen pages long, way bigger then I expected. Congratulations if you sat through the whole thing! If you didn't, I hope you feel ashamed of yourself for skipping to the end so soon.

Since this is the part where I get to talk freely, I should mention that several inspirations and ideas came together for writing this story. At first I thought of writing a story about John and Mary, since the pairing is pretty ignored in the fandom. While I was thinking about the human couple, I began wondering what would happen if they had a baby. The idea of WALL·E and EVE as babysitters quickly came to mind and it was too perfect to pass up. Then I began the speculations that you see at the beginning, that humans on the Axiom no longer lived in families or were born normally, etc, etc.

Hannah, the baby that resulted from all this brainstorming, is based on several little kids I've babysat over the years, and her name comes from one I was particularly fond of. Later I remembered with some surprise that there was also a little girl named Hannah in _Toy Story! _That felt like a tasty bit of Pixar trivia to toss in. There's also a bit of myself in her character, since as a kid I was a bit of an explorer with a tendency to wander off alone. I even lost myself in Central Park for several hours, but that's another story for another time…

M-O and the reject bots were included almost as an afterthought. I wish they'd gotten bigger parts in the movie, and I could have given them bigger parts here, but then the story would have gotten even longer and harder to sit through. Maybe next time I'll let them have their own adventures in babysitting. I'm sure M-O would be thrilled to be covered in drool again.


End file.
